the initial price is high but many good features. The machine will last 5 to 7 years. It will not go out of date. it can hold 12tb with four 3tb hdds and a fifth one in the second optical slot. you can add gear to it slow but sure. a hdd at a time ram as needed it has a built in airport express. it is quiet.

while I have really done lots with a mini the cpu freeze is annoying 2.66GHz c2d has really limited the mini's value as a ht. I am still using one for my ht. I am not going to blu ray because I like my mini. I don't want to change it setup so for now I watch dvd's and stream netflix.

BY having the mac pro I can end the need for a high end nas or a drobo.
my network has a mac pro
an iMac
one mini

along with a low end nas. everything is linked via the nas. all 3 machines have eyetv and can record.. the mac pro holds all backup recordings but I can move anything to the synology nas then to the machine I want to watch the recording on. so the pro means you don't need a drobo or any expensive nas storage a 150 dollar synology will do. you can also record 3 things at once.

I'm seriously considering a mac pro. Not sure yet but the mini is still serving me great but I would like a much zippier machine. Not sure I want to go imac because I like my old cinema display. I'm a little worried about the mac pro noise compared to the mini. Its so quiet I actually like taking a little hit on speed just for that peace and quiet.

the initial price is high but many good features. The machine will last 5 to 7 years. It will not go out of date. it can hold 12tb with four 3tb hdds and a fifth one in the second optical slot. you can add gear to it slow but sure. a hdd at a time ram as needed it has a built in airport express. it is quiet.

Those are very attractive features. I really do want to get one, but I do have to try to justify the cost. My other problem is that there's probably always going to be something new that I think I'll want well within 5-7 years that's not in the Mac Pro. At the moment there's thing's such as SATA III, USB 3.0 and 10Gbps ethernet.

philiparcario wrote:

while I have really done lots with a mini the cpu freeze is annoying 2.66GHz c2d has really limited the mini's value as a ht. I am still using one for my ht. I am not going to blu ray because I like my mini. I don't want to change it setup so for now I watch dvd's and stream netflix.

I agree with sticking with the Mini. I still am too and do wish that they brought blu-ray to the Mac Mini. I do hope they make the Mini a much powerful machine than it is now within the next refresh or two.

philiparcario wrote:

BY having the mac pro I can end the need for a high end nas or a drobo.
my network has a mac pro
an iMac
one mini

along with a low end nas. everything is linked via the nas. all 3 machines have eyetv and can record.. the mac pro holds all backup recordings but I can move anything to the synology nas then to the machine I want to watch the recording on. so the pro means you don't need a drobo or any expensive nas storage a 150 dollar synology will do. you can also record 3 things at once.

My problem is that if I wanted to use a Mac Pro to replace my NAS units I'd probably need multiple Mac Pros with the rate my data collection is growing. I also like the ability to do NAS to NAS backups and the ability to swap disks out one by one with higher capacity disks and get expansion. Not to mention that if I use a NAS just for file serving it's less likely to crash than a Mac Pro actively being used as a workstation. I'd probably like putting multiple SSDs in a Mac Pro (use it as a workstation) and still using my NAS units for storing most of my data. I already do have multiple NAS units (sunk cost) so I guess that'd also help my decision if I got a Mac Pro.

philiparcario wrote:

your cost is 250 instead of 1000 plus for a high end nas

Sure that saving is attractive in some ways, but I do see value in having Network Attached Storage on my network. As well as being cheaper to buy a NAS than a Mac Pro, it contributes less to the power bill._________________Laptop - 2012 15" base rMBP with 16GB RAM
HTPC - 2.0Ghz Mac Mini (Early 09), 120GB 5400 RPM HDD and 4GB RAM
Another Mini - 2.53Ghz Mac Mini (Late 09), 320GB 5400 RPM HDD and 4GB RAM
2011 Mini Server
NAS - 10 x ReadyNAS units

I'm seriously considering a mac pro. Not sure yet but the mini is still serving me great but I would like a much zippier machine. Not sure I want to go imac because I like my old cinema display. I'm a little worried about the mac pro noise compared to the mini. Its so quiet I actually like taking a little hit on speed just for that peace and quiet.

Joined: 03 Jan 2007Posts: 252Location: a small rural village in western Poland

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:47 pm Post subject:

I have a 1,1 Mac Pro (two dual-core CPUs, 2.0 GHz, basic model bought when they were launched) and although it scores lower in Geekbench or Xbench than my fresh 2010 Mini (apart from disk benchmarks, I haven't put the SSD into the Mini yet) - but truth to be told: it annihilates the Mini in any processor-intensive work. Photoshop and Final Cut are just by a factor of magnitude faster on this old Pro._________________Wojtek

I have a 1,1 Mac Pro (two dual-core CPUs, 2.0 GHz, basic model bought when they were launched) and although it scores lower in Geekbench or Xbench than my fresh 2010 Mini (apart from disk benchmarks, I haven't put the SSD into the Mini yet) - but truth to be told: it annihilates the Mini in any processor-intensive work. Photoshop and Final Cut are just by a factor of magnitude faster on this old Pro.

Thank you "hwojtek". Thats what I needed to know.
If there is a next time and I have the scratch
I won't hesitate._________________2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC

I got this off eBay and it runs awesome! I've got OS X and Windows 7 on dual boot, threw in an ATI 5770 and two 1TB drives. Needs a ram upgrade. Didn't come with an Airport card... If you need wifi, I would suggest: